


Consequences

by Kat_Of_Dresden



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: And everyone looks after him okay, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Apocalypse, Coma speeches, Gen, Hospital, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Klaus Hargreeves Has PTSD, Number Five | The Boy Whump, Number Five | The Boy has PTSD, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Set after 1x10, Vanya is feeling guiltyTM, and they are traumatized buddies lol, more or less
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:00:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/Kat_Of_Dresden
Summary: While they were getting out of the theatre, there's a glitch and for a moment, the Hargreeves get a taste of Apocalypse.Five refuses to stay there and drains himself getting out - luckily he has his siblings to look after him.Fluff and angst.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 701





	1. Chapter 1

The apocalypse. 

They had heard so much about it, they had done so much to try and prevent it - and had almost managed to. But still... Still it hard to fully understand, to take in, to picture. To get the extent of, the severity, the... The feeling. How it felt to be standing in a world made of ashes and debris and smoke. No life. 

Just the ruins of everything that once was, ruin and bodies. 

Only Vanya knew about the roaches and survival, to be honest, everyone had been so busy with their own stories, and dad's death, and feelings happening, time assassins messing everything up... No one had much discussed what it was like there. Just some sadness about losing everyone, about the billions life lost. But... 

Being there was an absolutely different story. Five hadn't been able to convey just how unbreathable the air was, how all the remnants of all the exposions and the fire burned your skin. The excruciating silence, all around, knowing that there was no one else, that you were so impossibly alone. 

The smell. The smell of rot and decay all around, of death and horrors. So many bodies laying around unburied. So much blood dried and everywhere, in whatever pieces of walls were left, on the ground, on the air. There's so much that is still burning, and yeah, flesh is also being burnt, and the smell... The smell is horrifying. 

The sight, unbearable. 

The silence, agony. 

The air that seemed to be cutting you with its embers and ash and pieces of what once was, buildings, cars, trees, all gone.

The apocalypse was absolute torture for all the senses, and the Hargreeves who were visiting it for the first time were beyond horrified. They really had never understood just the hardships of surviving in such a place, they hadn't understood all that was lost. And how much this new world hurt. And burned.

It was merely a glitch, a few seconds that they were there. Five was shaky in time travel in general, and to bring other people with him (and six other people! yes, Ben counted, of course he did) well it was a complicated process. And one he had no idea of how to control, how to manage, how to do right. So, after fluctuating in between younger and older selves for a bit in some blue vortex, they landed here, for a second.

The goddamned apocalypse, immutable, ungodly, overpowering, again. 

There was somebody screaming, a loud impossible girf-stricken yell that simply said "NOOOOO". He couldn't be stuck here, he couldn't have made everyone be stuck, he didn't.. couldn't... not anymore.... 

But Five was not going to allow this to happen, no way. If he had to give every ounce of energy he had in him, if he had to break every single law of the physical world, then he would. He was not going to stay here, equations be damned, powers be damed,no -

He just held on to his siblings tighter and closed his eyes and screamed scREAMED SCREAMED until every fiber of him was burning, until his head his chest and stomach felt like they were going to explode, until he could taste blood, until the world would want to murder him for doing this, eyes closed, hand held tight, throat raw, he would get out, he had to get out, he must get out..... 

The world... Started stopping. 

Five saw a tree. 

Good. 

This meant he had done it.   
He almost managed to smile before falling bonelessly on the floor, drained, unable to stand, to see, to breathe. 

* 

Shit.   
That had been some trip, and Klaus had been in some very colourful ones, both when he was high (so many so colourful) and when he was sober and dead people... Well, they took him on trips.   
But that... Seeing the world destroyed... Feeling it on their skin.... Five had warned them that it would be messy and god. That had been something. Klaus fell on the floor, trying to gather his thoughts. Suddenly the apocalypse wasn't some errand their brother wanted them to run, suddenly... His eyes watering and he was nauseous and... 

"Five! FIVE!" 

Diego had felt it before seeing anything. One second Five was holding his hand so hard he seemed to be going to break it and the next... He let go. He let go and fell to the floor without barely making a sound, just as they landed on whenever the fuck they were. 

Everyone was blurry, exhausted as if the ran a marathon, mouth dry, limbs aching, they tried to focus but all the screaming wasn't helping. 

"Guys, I don't think he's breathing! Someone get help!"

While everyone was still awfully confused and dizzy Diego ignored the pain he felt... Well, everywhere and tried to pick up his brother, who had just saved them from being vaposired by moon rock and was currently not breathing. 

"Does anyone know First aid? Did we land in a time when 911 even exists?"

Even if they did, their phones didn't have service. Maybe the networks weren't there yet. Shit. 

"If any of us had Five's powers we could just blink into a hospital." Klaus said, somewhat brokenly. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Walk. Until we find him some help."  
*

They were in the sixties, apparently still several years before 911 was a thing. The eventually found a road, and got picked up by a bus, and the driver was kind enough to change the itinerary to leave them at a hospital and allow them not to pay. 

The cover story was that Vanya (who was awake now, and horrified at what had happened, what she'd done, the moon, now Five could die from trying to save them... from her) and Klaus were Five's parents and the rest were extended family. That they had been on a camping trip and someone had taken their car and some belongings, that they'd been stranded, and their kid had just suddenly fainted and never woke up.

He was breathing now, but in a coma. Looking even younger - more peaceful than he should be. He shouldn't be at peace with this. None of them were.   
Now he was been given some IV fluids, but that was it. A lot of the main advances of medicines hadn't happened yet, and the doctors basically told them that either he chose to wake up, or they were screwed, that there was absolutely nothing the doctors there could do for him. One nurse even recommended to "just put him back on his bed at home and pray". Some medical help they were. 

They... didn't even have a home, a house to put him in. 

And after catching a glimpse of the hell he'd been trapped in... They needed to make things right. Fix this, fix him. 

Here they were, trapped in an unknown place at an unknown time, no house, no currency, and one of them was in a coma. 

Things... could be better. 

"Do you think he'll wake up?"

Klaus nodded, tried to smile to Allison. 

They couldn't have just got him back after all that time and then lose him after a year. It was not fair. 

But when had the world been fair?


	2. Vanya

Vanya

She didn't know why it surprised her, why it caught her so unaware. It was her that caused the apocalypse, and after seeing it first hand, for however short a time, after seeing the destruction she was capable of and the horrors she had conjured... It was only logical.

She was there, in her dream, surrounded by the ruins of what used to be her home, trapped in that horrible world she had created, alone because everyone else was dead. And while she knew what it was alone perfectly (she'd lived alone for so long) this... this was different.

Having no one walk the streets, having no one to talk to, even if it was just "how much is this" or "double capuccino to go, please". Having no one, being trapped with no one but yourself, in a place that was dead and gone. Like Five had been. For most of his life.

And it was on her.

Dad had been adamant on that whatever had happened to Five was hos own fault, for not listening. Whatever hell he ended up in it was his fault for trying his powers too soon, for being reckless. Vanya hadn't wanted to believe it, but it had been drilled into her for so long... But it was not his fault that he'd been trapped in a place as horrible as that.

She created a world in which he nearly lost in mind, in which he had to talk to a damn mannequin not to be devoured by the loneliness. Maybe... If it hadn't been for her maybe he would have overrreached and had been stuck too, but not in that horror. Not in that hell.

She woke up with a start, in a very uncomfortable chair next to his bed.

He's so quiet. He's so..... Unlike him.

Maybe Five wasn't the chattiest person in the world, but he was always thinking. Often doing things that had to do what all the things he thought about, writing equations, putting together stories, taking notes. He knew his strengths and weaknesses, he knew he was smart but not warm. Vanya didn't care that much about the lack of warmth. She knew that Five was a good person under all the haughtiness, she knew he cared about them under all of those mean words.

He cared about her, too, which was... Well, very welcome. She lived in a family that always made her feel inferior and left out, and having someone with you... Well, mom cared too, but it wasn't like she had a choice, she was programmed to care. But Five, smart Five, chose to spend time with her and look out for her of his own volition, and that mattered more than words could say.

He sometimes stayed and listened to her play, too. When he said that she was good it meant a lot.

It had been a terrible blow, losing him, and when he'd come back... Vanya felt that she had squandered the second chance she had with him, after all the efforts he'd done to get back, first by second guessing him and dismissing him (had she really suggested that maybe he had imagined things? that he was just mentally unstable? After so long in that hell, shooting down his pain and strugggle like that must have HURT) and then spending all that time with some... with Harold Jenkins.

"I feel like we barely saw each other, Five. Klaus tells me about when he pretended to be your dad, Diego tells me about when they found you drunk, Allison tells me about when you went to... his house, and you were hurt. They all seem to have stories with you, and I..."

She couldn't find the words. But needed to.

"I missed you so badly, Five. I cried, and I begged you to come back and looked at that damn painting for so long. And you... You did something incredibly dangerous to get back to us, to save us, and I..."

There were a couple of tears going down her face. Five maybe an asshole and stupidly mean more often than not, but in what mattered... He'd wanted to be there, with them. And she had ruined it.

"It my fault you had no choice but to bring us back in the past, my fault you did something as dangerous as taking seven other people with you when you time travelled. My fault that you are in a fucking coma. And I know placing blame is not going to help anyone but... You were there for me when we were kids, and I wasn't there for you when you came back. Not like I should have been. Not properly."

She runs her thumb through his hand. It's way too cold. And of course they are stuck in a place with nearly sixty years less of medical equipment. Why does Five always get the short end of the stick?

"You have to wake up, okay, Five? You have to wake up so I can make it up to you, all of it, the apocalypse, ignoring you in this week, fucking draining you to save us from the mess I made... All of it. I don't know how, and I...."

She was shaking her head, almost sure that nobody was listening. Put her head in her hands. Sighed.

"I hope you're resting, at least. I know you had been pushing yourself quite badly, and you told me yourself that you hadn't slept properly in a long time... And all that coffee... But I just - I can't lose you again. You have to be back and be insufferable, ok? Please do."

He looked even younger when he slept, but Vanya knew better. Knew that he'd lived several lifetimes of horrors in one. She knew it was not easy for him, either, looking like that, bieng treated like that. But he looked so small... So vulnerable, so pale, so skinny, which was his usual but also... Defeated. Ill. Broken.

"But you'll be fine, right? You'll get better. And I'm gonna make an effort, okay, Five? I'm going to be better to you, listen to you, even when you're talking about equations or anything like that. I will fix us, WE - we both will."

She was holding his hand with both of hers, her cheeks still tear stained.

"But you need to wake up for that, all right? You need to come back to us."

The hospital was quiet, just as the end of the world had been.

Vanya just hoped they wouldn't have to wait another seventeen years (or even worse, forty-five) to get their brother back.

"I'm sorry, Five. Please come back. Please get better."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know you want to comment!


	3. Klaus + Ben

Klaus hadn't been the smartest sibling, or the kindest, or the strongest. But he was funny and although as a child he had been shy and withdrawn a life surrounded by drugs and druggies and taught him to be charming. Fun. If you could charm the pants off a dealer you got more product and you could have more fun. He was witty and he was delightful - he knew how to be at least. How to play roles, and distract people with humour, with some well-placed pizzazz.

And so that was what he did, in this case too. Bedazzled some nurses, softened the heart of a couple of doctors with the sad story of his poor sick kid, of how he had tried everything to provide for him despite being so young, of how he was so smart but they couldn't afford to send him to a better school... So now they had been settled the little house of one of the doctor's recently deceased grandparents on the outskirts of the town and were receiving soup and baskets of muffins, and the nurses came occasionally, to ask about the poor boy, bring IV fluids, all those things. They were set and Klaus was feeling oddly proud for having helped, for being this lucid while sober, for providing with a solution.

But he knew that it wasn't enough. He knew that Five could maybe never come back. Maybe he was too tired. Too broken.

They were all traumatized by their childhood, to bigger or lesser extent, but only Klaus had been to war, and had seen its horrors - had added that trauma to their collective trauma of childhood, the trainings, the competitions, the rules, all of it. So yeah Klaus knew a lot about trauma, about PTSD, about unhealthy coping ways.

He'd been thoroughly educated on post-traumatic stress disorder, several times and in different colours during his many stints in rehab, so much so that he'd learned the symptoms by memory and by number. He knew what it looked like, he could read it, see it, even when the affected party hid it to the best of their (quite considerable) abilities. But he had never expected to see it in Five. To rest of them, sure, but not Five.

He'd been big, Five. Important. They didn't talk much as kids: Klaus hated his powers and couldn't control them like dad wanted, Five loved his powers and apparently controlled them too well for dad's liking. Klaus was... Well he was scared a lot of the time, and Five was seemingly fearless. Hell, he had even run out and left home. He'd seemed unbreakable. But he wasn't. None of them were.

When he'd come back, he'd been... Different. Barely all there, honestly, obsessing about his mission but keeping quiet (social distancing #8), drowning himself in alcohol and cofffee, keeping on walking even while injured (#2 self destructive behaviour) and he was fairly certain that he'd caught him in flashbacks a couple of times ( # 1).

But who could blame him? The best part of his life had probably been at home with dad and the rest, which was really fucked up. Then forty years of apocalypse. Then feeling emdebted to a life as an assassin in return for not dying alone in that vast wasteland. And then coming back and...

"And you did that mostly sober, I mean, can't have been easy finding anything in that awful place, huh, much less a fourty year supply of booze. Jeez, at what age did you start to drink? Who was there with you the first time you got too drunk and puked all over yourself? No one? Just Dolores?"

(Five was a smart kid. Being trapped in hell with just a few books only made him smarter. And the name of his life companion was... the Spanish words for "pains". Yes, it was a relatively common name, but Klaus didn't think this was coincidental)

"It's shit that you had to grow up in that hell, that the only company you ever had known... You had to find dead in the rubble. Yikes, bro, that had to hurt."

Would Five ever complain to them about it? About the pain, about the suffering? He wouldn't, would he, and much less go to some stranger. An keeping all that inside...

"So you fixated on getting back, didn't you, it was your reason to live." Klaus was sure Five thought about giving up on occasion. He had. "And you managed, you crazy fool, you did it, and you got some second chance to live all those years that were taken from you. So you can't just..."

How to word this in a correct way? Klaus felt at a loss, sober, without his jokes, just... Being honest and communicating something that was difficult.

"You have to make the best of it, all right? I know you're hurt and I know you're broken in ways the others can't understand - but you can get over it, like you got over everything else. And when it gets too bad, you can call me, all right? I know we weren't super tight as kids, but PTSD buddies must stick together, right?"

Klaus sighed loudly. Sat in the ugly armchair- sighed again. He was not ready to lose him again. None of them were. It was fair, they weren't ready and... But as tough as Five could be, they all had breaking points. Having to see the apocalypse again may have been his.

Klaus kept sighing looking for a lighter, looking for something, fidgeting, fidgeting, fidgeting....

"You think he'll make it?"

"I have faith." Ben said, and meant it.

Ben had always been quite fond of Five. There was a certain... admiration for his intelligence, his determination, his thirst to learn more, to do more, to advance. And it wasn't because of he wanted to be a leader, because he wanted to be better than the others. Five didn't care that much about the others, he'd always been much more of a free agent, he wanted to know more because he was curious, maybe he liked knowing more.

And he kind of liked Ben, too. As the two most... intellectually inclined, so to speak, Five and Ben (and sometimes Vanya), recommended books to each other, made logic puzzles together, that sort of nerdy stuff. They bonded over that, in a way, and Five treated Ben like an equal, which should have been a given between siblings, but it was not in their household and definitely not the case with Five. If you wanted him to respect you like an equal, you had to earn it.

He was... a complicated guy, but Ben knew, he knew that h's heart was in the right place. But they were kids who had so much on them, who were living under constant pressure, and hey, they were human. They all had flaws. Luther was too self-important. Diego too prone to anger. (And now Ben was hearing Klaus' ever-present voice in his head, saying, but not me, right? I'm flawless) Five was rash, and cutting, and a bit snobbish.

But he had a good heart, deep down, he did care about them, deep down, in his own thorny kind of way. You just had to get through a lot of defense to get there. But his actions...

Like now. Draining himself completely to get them safe, get them in the past. Five hadn't know what effects could taking other people to time travel could have in his body, and yet he had done it, and when it was getting to a bad place, he'd corrected course, but this dreadful consequences. It really spoke louder than all the mean remarks. So he didn't say I love you, or hugged them much.

But for Five, the fact that he sought them out, that he was there, that he let them in on his plans and his leads (even if reluctantly), that was his way of saying I love you. I need you.

He was a good kid, and he may not have grown up to be exactly a good man, but he was trying to fix the wrongs, be a better person, use his considerable skills to try and save people. That had to count for something, right? Ben thought so.

(He knew some people had partly blamed Five for his death. Said that if he had been there, maybe they could have done something, maybe things wouldn't have ended the way the did. Ben abhorred that implication, and those people. Five wouldn't have been able to do anything. At least he hadn't had to watch his brother die horribly) (He had to see them dead though) (which was also quite bad)

It hadn't been easy, for easy of them, the last few days. Finding out it was their sister who caused the end of the world, then failing to prevent it, seeing what said end of the world felt like, and now having to watch Five... Like this. Broken down. Debilitated. Bedridden. When Five had never been one to stay still.

But Ben did have faith that he would make it. Five was strong, maybe stronger than any of them, and he was going to make it. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the brother they had thought gone forever.

"Tell him that I don't want him with me just yet. To wait. That I am more than enough to haunt poor little Klaus." Klaus smiled, and did say it.

"Tell him I'm looking for a way to properly communicate, to be corporeal more, and that I really want to have a proper conversation with him, to catch up. Tell him that I missed him - that I still do."

Ben was still in ghost form, and yet a couple tears fell on the bedspread.

"Tell him he can do this, that he has us to be his strength if he can't find any. Tell him... that I love him. And that I want him back."

Klaus said it, in his own words -

"And Ben's right. We need you back. Despite everything... We need you to be okay. Get better, will you?"

Ben cleaned his eyes.

"You can do this, Five. You can do anything."

"Let's hope." Klaus added.

While he wished he had his brother's optimism... days were passing, and each day there were less chances of him waking up.

Klaus sighed again. Couldn't they get a fucking break?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked please please do tell! 
> 
> Next up is Diego :)


	4. Diego

Diego hadn’t liked Five when they were kids.

For starters, there was the matter of the name. Diego hated being number two. Second place, first loser and all that. He didn’t get why he had to be two and not one, and he definitely didn’t take pride in his number. He’d rather people not know.

Five wasn’t even even in the top three and didn’t care. Didn’t care about Luther, about anyone else’s numbers, about the stupid popularity and leadership contest dad was making them live in. He was self sufficient, he had enough confidence to question dad, and he was really helpful in missions. He could be a bit of a dick, a lot of times, but he also knew how to put people in their places, and that was not something that should be brushed off in a family like theirs.

So, Diego may not have liked Five, but he respected him. Unlike Luther, who was an obnoxious dead weight who contributed nothing but phony leadership and delusions of grandeur. Five was smug, but at least he had something to be smug about. He was properly clever. Diego didn’t understand much of the things Five talked about, but what he did get... Yeah, Five was properly smart.

And then he did something incredible, he stood up to dad, he disobeyed and he disappeared. Number Five was no more, and he left a hole in their family, and surprisingly, in Diego too. In spite of not liking each other (much) the truth was that Diego had relied on number Five for a lot of things. Difficult homework. Sneaking out of punishments. Also he made a lot of funny faces when they went out for doughnuts and had no regard for a lot of rules, which was refreshing, considering their father’s and Luther’s obsession with them.

Not having Five was a loss in the family, and a loss for him.

But gods, had he forgotten just how much of a jerk he could be.

When he came back, Five was just as bitchy and high and mighty as usual, but way meaner, And Diego had less patience. They clashed. It was nice to know that some things didn’t change.

But still, seeing him drunk, seeing him collapse in Jenkins’ house... In his memory, Five had always been whole - he had been arrogant and conceited but happy in his weird way. Powerful. Somehow untouchable.

But now... Now he was in pieces, like the rest of them. Clinging at battles even when he was hurt (Diego could relate to this... And was hoping none of his other siblings had that bad bad habit). Plagued by the horrors he’d lived, and stuck in a body that made him be treated in a disrespectful way, that disregarded all the traumas he’d lived.

But Five had a mission, and Diego liked that. Respected that. Liked how proactive he was, liked the action. He still got mad at every rude comment and any time he showed his stuck-up ways (he had a short fuse, okay? He was working on on it, but wasn’t advancing much), but still, it was good to have him back. So he was messed up. At least here he had people to be messed up with.

But now...

Now everything had gone to shit, again. After a gazillion days in that hellhole of an apocalypse, now he was in a fucking coma. He’d saved them all, but sacrificed himself. It was wrong. Now there was a hole in their family again, and Diego hated how little he could do about it.

He was playing with a knife while pacing through the room, trying to think of ways to fix this fuck up of a situation. There needed to be something.

He sat in the ugly armchair in front of the bed, still playing with the knife. He couldn’t think of anything.

“I was never the thinker, though. You were, and Ben, and Klaus on a good day - Vanya probably, but she never spoke, so I didn’t count her. But you, you could think of stuff I would never have. And you pissed me off every day, still do. But you were important - you are important.”

And Diego kept forgetting, annoyed by his antics, and kept being reminded just as he lost him. How important he was. How much he still card for his brother.

“I...wish I had done something... I don’t know what, but something to protect you. From that shithole apocalypse, and from this... If I could have maybe, taken some of the brunt for you... But you always think you can do it alone, don’t you? I know the feeling. But we’re both idiots for thinking like that. Idiots with scars.”

Five had only been in his pristine teenage body a week and already there was scar from shrapnel in his gut, and some stitched gash in his arm. No good.

“You need to take better care of yourself, ok? You’re not... We aren’t bulletproof. Our... determination is maybe too big for our bodies. They are fragile. You are fragile.”

He put down the knife for a second. Why was Five so pale? So still in that bed. Why did he look so small? He wasn’t small. He was a master assassin genius who could change history. And yet...

“You’re a horrible person, you know? You came all this way for us and yet you couldn’t be nice to us for like ten minutes. And still.. I hate seeing you hurt. I hate not knowing if you’ll be fine and I hate to think that maybe you’re in pain under the peaceful look. I...”

Diego rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping well. Helping people was his entire mission in life and now one of his brother’s life was in danger after helping him and he wasn’t helping. It physically hurt.

“I know you’re tough, and I know you’re strong - maybe stronger than any of us. I mean, even after the apocalypse, that commission gig doesn’t sound great. Doesn’t sound like you had much choices, much free will. I know how much you value that.”

Five was still and quiet, and he seemed to be losing weight, which was bad news, since he didn’t have much to lose to begin with. They needed to fix him, soon.

“I’ll find a way, all right? Talk to Ben, get you doctors. You’re not disappearing on us again, Five. We’re not going to let you.”

As he got up and started to leave...

“Y- y- you deserve better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed please do tell this insecure author?
> 
> Just a heads up, there'll be no Luther episode :=I
> 
> You know you want to comment ;)


	5. Allison

Without Grace around, it was Allison the only one that had actual pareting skills (even if she fucked that up a bit) (Sometimes she thought about that one comment Five had done about wanting to meet Claire. She never expected that to be possible, if she was honest. She told Claire that of her Five uncles two were sleeping with the angels now. Not quite the case. But it was... a nice notion. That Five wanted to meet her, and that she could meet her intelligent brave uncle. If Claire lived to be an adult it would in no small part thanks to Five, and Allison was hoping they'd like each other. They probably would. Claire was a smart cookie and Allison had an inkling that Five wouldn't treat her like a baby, which was what bothered her the most) so she was in charge of the more... pragmatic aspects of looking after the comatose Five, like cleaning him, combing his hair, and, in a couple of fairly disastrous attempts, trying to get him to eat or drink.

But yeah, trying to get some food in him had been a disaster, she had just managed to get the pureed fruit all over his chin and neck. Their poor Five.

Whatever it was in the IVs it wasn¡t enough, and Allison was worried. How was he going to find the strength to wake up when he was only skin and bones? How was he going to manage? He needed all his strength with him, he needed his energy to be back, because he'd always been... Well, yeah, energetic. Someone who did a lot, thought a lot, practised a lot, got ways to sneak up a lot.

And he may not have been the most affectionate or caring of them, but she was, she did care about him in spite of the harsh words, and she was often worried about him, when they were kids and after. Because Five.... well, Five didn't loo much after himself, that was a fact.

He was always doing, thinking, planning, and every time their dad proposed something to do he wanted to have done it, to have done that and always a bit more, because he was like that, too smart, too willfull, too fearless. (Luther and Diego hated it when Five got first place in tests and such because Five didn't even care about winning or much less leading, he just cared about doing more, knowing more, extending and expanding what he could do and when and where he could do it).

But in all his want to always do more, it felt like some times he forgot he had an actual physical body, that had limits, limits that his mind never reached, so he didn't take into account, but were there. They'd had to pick him up as he passed out more than once because he'd used his powers too much, when they were kids, once in the middle of a mission too.

And he had materialised into a lot of bad places: too close to walls so he stumbled and fell, in mid-air which brought only more falling, or in places like closets or libraries where things actually fell on him. The fact that he didn't seem to care much when he got hurt didn't help matters. There was always something else more important to Five. So Allison had to stop and make some sad and tell him "it's important for me" so that he would let her patch him up.

And it was, it was important for her that everyone was okay, including Five. They may not talk that much (she was more concentrated on feeling, he on thinking) but she appreciated how he was there for Vanya, for Ben, for everyone who got into too much trouble with dad. Again, overreaching. But as far as personality issues go, it hadn't seem like a too bad one at the time.

She'd cleaned his cuts, and told him to be careful, and worried when they were kids. And it was very confusing, because he still looked like the kid he used to be, the kid she patched up and... And Allison was a mum, and although she knew that Five was an old man but... she was a mother, and this was a kid, a kid she'd loved, she'd cared for and missed, a kid she'd worried about even before he disappeared....

"You have to look after yourself more, Five." she said, sat on the bed, running her hand, through his hair. "I know probably everyone else has already told you, but it's true. You have to put yourself first, you and your health, not just the mission, not just saving us... I can't imagine what growing up and living in that place must have done to you, to your head, but..."

It had been weeks already. Way too long for him to still show no signs of waking, for him to be so still... They couldn't have waited all this time just to lose him again. Allison had managed to get a couple doctors to look at Five too, from other hospitals, and rumoured some meications and treatments that they had recommended... But still nothing. Allison worried that they may have to start talking about... Just....And she couldn't do that.

"Do you how worried you've made us, all of us? Do you have any idea of how worried I am for you? How worried I always been? When we were teens and you defied dad, when you disappeared, and I didn't know if you were safe, if you were ok, and now, doing all these things to yourself..."

Allison didn't want to cry, but it was hard. Every time she thought of the apocalypse, every time she thought of poor Five having to find their bodies when he was just a kid, every time... Alone, so alone with just his equations and his desperation to come back, and then when he came... The assassins, people not believing him, everyone's suspicions... Had he been eating anything solid in the week he'd been with them besides that sadwich the first day? Had anyone made sure? Why hadn't she?

She was always worrying, and yet, this time, she hadn't worried enough.

".... And I'm tired of worrying. I want you to be ok, Five, for more than a day, hell more than a week. Can you do that for me? Please?"

There was no answer, of course. It really broke her heart.

"I heard a rumour that you woke up."

Just like she heard a rumour that he came back, that he was okay, that he wasn't hurt. (It doesn't work on a painting, she knew, but tried). Like she was hearing now. (It doesn't work on someone who's in a coma and can't hear you, she knew, but she tried)

"I heard a rumour you got better."

But his rumours never worked when she needed them the most.

"I heard a rumour you came back to us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Do comment if you liked ;)
> 
> Just a final ep left, hope you enjoyed this one too


	6. Chapter 6

They did everything by Five's bed lately, they watched some terrible black and white tv, they planned things, they did their nails (well, Allison and Klaus, at least). Five's room had become centre of operations for the Hargreeves, for a numbers of reasons.

Some were hoping that all the noise and the flurry of activity would finally wake him up, others simply thought that it would be better to be there when he woke up. So he knew that he wasn't alone, so he knew that they had been waiting for him.

But it was hard, keeping their hopes up. Weeks came and went and there was no change in Five's condition, making the grim thought of him never waking up loom above them. And Five... well, he'd lived a pretty shit life so far, and they really really wanted him to be back, and start living.

Maybe go to a movie. Have some ice cream. Something beyond destabilising trauma and alcohol. Something better.

They kept talking to him by his bed, sometimes reminiscing of stories that they lived when they kids, catching him up on stuff that had happened. Making plans for the future but most of those including him being awake. If not... whatever they did, there was still a bitter taste in their moutsh, and endless wait to have a missing part of their family (of their souls) back.

The waiting felt eternal. Every day felt like a month, and although they went out, tried to get jobs, managed to get some cash... It was going to slow. All of it. And how were they supposed to save the world without their smartest most determined brother around? It had been who had reminded them of the impotance of their mission when they got sidetracked, him who gave them the clues, gave them an advantage.

Without him they had only been half a dozen broken adults, regretting their choices, living half-lives, hiding from they really were, hiding in their loneliness. Five appearing there had given them a purpose, given their lives more meaning. It may have been dad who brought them together, but it was in no small measure thanks to Five that they stayed together.

And now...

A coma. Seriously.

It was more than unfair. It was stupid, and hurtful and... Fortunately, not eternal.

They were talking about ways in which maybe they could jump to the future by themselves, even if it was just twenty years or something, to see if they could maybe give their brother at least some better medical care when it happened. It wasn't some miraculous moving of a finger, or some eyes opening in surprise and smiling warmly at the people around him. No, it was something much more... Well, much more Five.

"C'n you... k'p it...down....'m tired."

Of course his forst words after a months-long coma were to shut them up. Of course.

Recovery wasn't short, and wasn't easy. At first, Five could only be awake for small periods of time, and had trouble following a conversation. Then he could be awake for longer, but it was very frustrating because he wanted to walk and go out and just DO things, but his body wasn't answering properly and he got angry and mean, even meaner than usual. But they put up with it, always glad to have the nagging and the scolding and the sarcasms back.

One day, when Five could finally walk again, he woke up to find his room deserted, which was odd. Even though he'd repeatedly said that he didn't need babysitters and that he'd rather be left alone, there was usually someone keeping watch. Just until he recovered completely, they said. Five thought they were going a bit overboard, but...

He went down, with some difficulty, towards the kitchen where he heard someone talking...

"SURPRISE!"

It was... it was a party. There was cake, there was... presents? And there was a bunch of Hargreeves looking at him with affection and glee. So out of character. So... much.

"We realised that we didn't, like make it clear how happy we were, and are, to have our dearest Fivest brother back from the land of mystical disappearances and put together this little shindig. Isn't it groooovy?" Klaus asked, in his usual flippant tone.

"But this is not just a "we're happy you're back" party. This is also a thank you party. For hanging on, even when your body was giving up on you. For aving our lives even to the risk of your own. For surviving, and giving us a chance to survive." Allison said, warm, gentle, sweet.

"And it's also the start of an apology. For not being there when you needed me, for dimissing you, for not showing just how much we care about having you back with us, not showing how thankful we are that you risked so much to get back to us." Vanya said, with a more solemn expression. "I'm sorry, Five. You came to me and I dismissed you. And then almost killed you. But still you found a way for me to make it, for all of us."

"So let us eat, and have some coffee we've brought you the bestest cooffee, Five, just for you- and give some presents!" Klaus, again. He was right.

It was time for an amazing breakfast, to celebrate a (second) reunion and to maybe, even, in spite of Five's annoyance, a nice warm, back from the almost dead group hug.

**Author's Note:**

> This was just an excuse to get coma speeches so yeah. Coma speeches with each sibling shall happen.


End file.
